Tags: fonts

With design and publishing tools in nearly everyone’s hands, the world has been overrun by highly questionable typography choices—several of which we see (and cringe at) over and over.

Why are these fonts the worst? Two big reasons: They’re completely overused and/or they show a total lack of imagination. Here, we present the best (and free!) substitutions for the five most boring fonts.…

We really like origami and typography here at Visual News, so when we ran across this new animated origami/kirigami inspired typeface by Calango, we where smitten. You heard that right, too: it’s an animated typeface designed in After Effects, which can be fully customized for your next film or animation. If moving images aren’t your thing though, they’ve also produced a static version which is free if you like them on Facebook (it’s a small price to pay).…

Isn’t it wonderful when modern technology takes something old, and instead of lessening its meaning and beauty, instead enhances it, making it something beautifully accessible for all? Doing just that, this aptly named new set of glyphs was created over a painstakingly long four months of hand-crafted work. Arcano is a new type set which was completely designed by hand, letter by letter, to create a surprisingly modern look using the classic forms of calligraphy. Inspired by a variety of forms, from nature, to symbols, icons, jewels and many more, the result is something classically modern.…

We’ve got a new love for Italian rapper Mecna and his video for the hard-hitting song Super. It features a full on typographical throw-down of italian lyrics, rendered in flashes of the lyrics in white font over the underground wandering artist. If you’re wondering, the instrumental track is Ratatat’s, Loud Pipes and you can find a free download of Mecna’s version at mecnamusic.com. Anyone want to try identifying all the beautiful fonts here?…

Dana Tanamachi is the creator of some very refined chalk signage. Her works have a classic feel reminiscent of extra-fancy title cards from 1920’s silent films, mixing a healthy dose of typographical styles with strong linear flourishes. Her custom lettered signs have been commissioned by clients such as Google, Adidas, EveryDay with Rachael Ray, Harber Collins UK, West Elm and Rugby Ralph Lauren. See her process video at the bottom of this post, then head to danatanamachi.com for more of her black and white masterpieces…

When the crew from type foundry and design studio Typotheque set out to create a new series of digitally readable fonts, they broke free from the establishment and created a whole new font-family based around the little used parametric system. Their new series “Elementar” strives to solve the issues of using our standard highly detailed fonts (those defined by curves) on low-resolution pixilated screens such as computer monitors. Rather than trying to adapt printable fonts to the screen, their new system uses a collection of bitmap based fonts designed specifically for viewing on digital displays. Although the fonts are non-scalable and size-specific, the font-family includes thousands of pre-scaled glyphs which allow flexibility. The advantage of this system? With their low-tech approach customers are assured solid, stable typeface reproduction across platforms and devices.

To facilitate exploration and understanding of their new system Typotheque features an in depth browser based Font Explorer on their website which allows customers to adjust weight, height, width and style to their liking. We’re excited to see where this new take on typography takes us!…